The invention relates to passing a suture or other thread-like object within a body, and more particularly to a looped suture passer to assist in passing at least a portion of a suture or other thread-like object through bodily tissue.
In various corrective surgeries or implant procedures, bodily tissue must be returned to a certain anatomical position or placed in an improved position. For example, when uterine prolapse occurs, weakened ligaments cause the uterus to descend into the vaginal cavity. One way to correct uterine prolapse requires that the vaginal apex be approximated to the sacrospinous ligament. The uterus is suspended by sutures that are passed through the vaginal wall. Passing sutures through the vaginal wall, however, is difficult as there is limited space to work in.
Because passing a suture is often difficult due to the limited space available to work in, devices and techniques have been developed to assist a person, such as a surgeon, in manipulating sutures. Some sutures are manipulated by plunger-type suture passing devices, whereby a surgeon squeezes a handle to move a plunger which projects a loop through a guide tip. The handle of such plunger-type devices must be squeezed to slide the plunger so that the loop is extended, thus requiring at least two fingers to operate the devices. In some case, the plunger-type devices also have obtrusive handles, which can impair maneuverability of the device when working in confined spaces. For example, during surgery, a surgeon may utilize multiple devices all directed toward use in a small portion of the patient's body. As such, the confined surgical work space can become cluttered with devices and thus impair maneuverability of individual devices. Therefore, a compact device would grant the surgeon greater ease of maneuverability in the confined surgical work space.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved suture passing device in which a surgeon can move the actuator of the device with a single finger or thumb. This allows the surgeon to more easily and steadily control the operation of the suture passing device, and thus the manipulation of the suture. There is also a need for an improved suture passing device that has a compact handle portion thus allowing for greater maneuverability of a device within a confined surgical work space.